Iranians have the chance to vote for a new president in elections next week – and yet many plan to stay away from the polls. In a new survey, Pooyan Tamimi Arab and Ammar Maleki found a startling number plan to abstain. They talk about why, and what this mass abstention might mean – as well as what they’ve found about Iranians views of the Islamic Republic, in the latest episode of our podcast The Conversation Weekly. Listen and subscribe here.

Half a century after the end of the Biafran war in Nigeria, the wounds and grievances of that turbulent time have resurfaced, as they have done intermittently in the intervening years. This time they provide the backdrop to the tweet sent by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari which was deleted by Twitter, and which sparked off tit-for-tat retaliations between the government and the media platform. Benjamin Maiangwa and Oluchi Ogbu provide the historical context that underpins the ongoing and unresolved tensions around the Biafran question.

Gemma Ware

Editor and Co-Host, The Conversation Weekly Podcast

Two men watch Ebrahim Raisi, the conservative frontrunner in Iran’s elections, in a televised presidential debate. Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

Why so many Iranians plan not to vote this month – podcast

Gemma Ware, The Conversation; Daniel Merino, The Conversation

Plus, why fireflies need dark nights and what you can do about it. Listen to episode 19 of The Conversation Weekly.

The feeling of desertion by Nigeria’s federal government has not left the region that was defined as Biafra during the country’s civil war. Stefano Montesi - Corbis/Getty Images

Nigeria: a deleted tweet, a Twitter ban and Biafran wounds that have never healed

Benjamin Maiangwa, Durham University; Oluchi Gloria Ogbu, University of Manitoba

Until the conditions that led to the Nigeria-Biafra war are resolved, the debate on the viability of one Nigeria will continue to arise.

Health + Medicine

Working with dangerous viruses sounds like trouble – but here’s what scientists learn from studying pathogens in secure labs

Jerry Malayer, Oklahoma State University

Scientists get up close and personal with deadly pathogens to give doctors the tools they need to treat people sickened by germs. The key is keeping the researchers – and everyone around them – safe.

HIV 40 years on: four action points to end AIDS as a health threat

Gilles van Cutsem, University of Cape Town

The key actions needed to end AIDS are relatively clear. The question is whether every government, funder, and implementing organisations will apply them.

The FDA’s big gamble on the new Alzheimer’s drug

C. Michael White, University of Connecticut

The FDA approved Alzheimer's disease drug aducanumab despite minimal evidence of its efficacy. Whether this decision ultimately hurts or helps patients depends on data researchers don't yet have.

Coronavirus variants can evade antibodies by spreading via supercells – new research

Zania Stamataki, University of Birmingham

Scientists have discovered that SARS-CoV-2 can evade neutralising antibodies by fusing cells.

Business + Economy

Is tax avoidance ethical? Asking on behalf of a few billionaire friends

Erin Bass, University of Nebraska Omaha

Wriggling out of paying taxes may be legal, but is it right? Aristotle, Immanuel Kant – and others – have their say.

COVAX is failing to halt the COVID-19 pandemic: here’s why, and how to fix it

Monica de Bolle, Johns Hopkins University

The inefficient vaccine allocation rules currently in place must be replaced by new cooperative institutional structures and more concrete steps by the Group of Twenty (G20) countries.

Energy + Environment

G7: why major economies are delaying a break with the fossil fuel industry

George Ferns, Cardiff University; Marcus Gomes, Cardiff University

Rhetoric is hardening, but government policies still honour the special relationship with fossil fuels.

A volcanic eruption 39 million years ago buried a forest in Peru – now the petrified trees are revealing South America’s primeval history

Deborah Woodcock, Clark University; Herb Meyer, National Park Service

Using remnants of fossilized trees, scientists and an artist figured out what the forest looked like long before humans existed.